Mods or upgrades for XM?

Tweakers' Asylum

Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ.

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Because I live in a rural area, and favor a relatively rare style of music (African pop- ESPECIALLY in rural areas!!), broadcast FM doesn't do it for me. But I need exposure to new music so I know what to buy (actually, to ORDER them, here). XM has just what I need, station-wise. And while it's fine for the car, I can't find any receiver worthy of my 15K home setup. So I'm considering tweeks, mods, add-ons, whatever, to boost fidelity. I'm a firm believer in tubed output for CD and SACD, I've had great pleasure from factory- hot rodded tubed variants of both kinds of players.
My first thought is an outboard tubed output stage, or "buffer", such as the Musical Fidelity X10-D (and the new model that just replaced it), which is designed to smooth out and open up the signal from a less-than-state-of-the-art CD player.
I'm also wondering about the applicability of all those other add-on tubed mod circuits, of wildly varying price, designed for modding CD and SACD players to high end. These are hard wired into the player box, and would never fit in any XM receiver I've seen. That type of modding often is augmented by clock upgrades and better caps, which, conceivably could also improve the final signal in XM receivers. But inside an existing, relatively large, cabinet. Connecting such improvments to the circuitry shoehorned into most XM receivers might be challeging, requiring perhaps, extra boxes, a power supply, etc.
Any thoughts on these or other possible solutions? Has anyone tried any of them with these receivers?
I'm using a Sony DRM-XMO1MK2 (for home, that is). It makes an annoying mechanical noise, though it does not come through with the signal. Any higher fidelity receivers? Or other add-on or mod solutions?
Under any set of circustances, I need direct RCA outputs. FM modulation totally compromises the signal, much like that of a factory add-on car CD player with the same connectivity. One is left with the harshness of the digital signal (the bad part), and robbed of dynamic range (from an already compressed signal) and detail (the good parts). I've heard some people say that braodcast FM sounds better, but I've never found that to be true. Maybe the XM station I like is particularly good, and the local FM choices bad. XM sounds better to me. And I like my music on the warmish side. Go figure.
I understand the limitations of the technology, including compression (although I think the people whpo criticize XM on that basis are probably listening to a unit that uses FM modulation, rather than digital or discrete audio, outputs. Ngoma plays a style of music that is particularly bouncy and dynamic, and it sounds MUCH more dynamic and detailed than similar stuff over NPR (for a piddling 2 hours a week). Not exactly scientific, but I"m convinced.
Anyhow, I"d be interested to hear whatever anyone's tried or thoughtfully ruled out along these lines.
And has anyone any insight or inside info how good the Polks will be? They're supposed to release them next month.

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Topic - Mods or upgrades for XM? - dave osborne 19:33:46 10/26/04 (4)

Re: Mods or upgrades for XM? - Bromo33333 09:23:18 10/27/04 (3)

Any Idea which companies... - Djhymn 16:38:37 10/27/04 (2)

Re: Any Idea which companies... - dave osborne 22:19:32 10/27/04 (0)

Who is developing a home receiver component? - Bromo33333 16:51:04 10/27/04 (0)

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